Review Of Samsung DualView TL225 Digital Camera

The TL225 is the first compact with a secondary screen on the front for self portraits. Like the hidden screen on the front, there are some surprisingly nice features on this camera. Read on to know more about the Samsung’s latest offering.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

The first thing you notice about this camera is the dual screen feature. The Touch screen is quite responsive and fun to use. The camera looks great, and performs well too. The number of modes and the automatic feature set is impressive.

Thumbs Down:

The camera uses microSD cards, which might irritate some, being tiny and can be easily lost. The battery in charged in the camera itself. If you need to attach your TL225 to an external device via HDMI, you’ll require an adapter. The touchscreen may not be kind on everyone. The folks who rarely use a digital, or are used to using physical buttons may have a little difficulty here. One major drawback is that the whole screen is not used while framing the shots at highest resolution.

Inside The Trunk:

The compact camera offers you a resolution of 12.2, which is pretty good for compacts and daily use. The TL225 uses a CCD sensor. The ISO range for this camera is a decent 80-3200 with an option of auto. The lens offers you 4.6x zoom, after which you can use the 5x digital zoom the camera offers you. You can also use the compact to shoot videos. The TL225 is the first camera to have a screen in the front to click self-portraits. The TL225 uses an Optical image stabilizer to help you shoot blur free images. The shutter speed range is also a decent 1/2000th of a second to 8 seconds.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

What do you do when you want to click a picture of yourself and there is no one to click it for you? Extend your arm, smile into the lens and click. See the photo, if you don’t like it, delete it, and keep repeating procedure till you get the results, right? Well, the new Samsung DualView TL225 eliminates the need to repeat the procedure, for it comes with a small 1.5 inch screen next to the lens that you can view while clicking the photo. Cool, right? Well, that’s not all about this little camera. It offers you various a large auto shooting features too. What I feel is that Samsung designed this camera for those who like to be in front of it, and not stuck to the viewfinder. The interactive menus, assists and innumerable modes all suggest this. It is a great move by Samsung, and the TL225 is not just a gimmick, but the real deal. It is a beautiful camera that has been the result of brainstorming in the lab rather than the marketing chambers.

Razzle Dazzle:

This little piece of innovation is great to look at too. The black and blue combination works well with the camera size and the body shape. The dual screens are a beauty, solving a genuine problem. The front LCD can be activated by tapping on it. This will instantly activate the screen and is shot ready. In the generation which is highly addicted to social networking sites, this camera could be a real been. Now-a-days people like to be seen rather than just sit back and see. The camera is just the right size for self portraits and fits easily into your jeans pockets or purse.  The TL225 has a nice interface with almost no buttons at all. The functions can be accessed through the touch screen menus. It has a good battery life, and is good for around 180 shots.

Inside Dope:

The smaller screen on the front is a very nice touch and don’t be fooled with the simplicity. It also can display your countdown for clicking photos on timer, and can display animation to grab attention of babies while clicking pictures. It surely is a very clever thought and a truly interesting feature. The image stabilization helps in self portraits too. It seems like the whole camera has been designed around the front screen, and the final result is pretty interesting and attractive. The touchscreen at the back hides a whole pot load of menus and selections. There are some very interesting features and one of them is focusing in program more. You can touch your desired point of focus on the screen and the camera focuses and shoots, keeping your point of focus as priority. There are thirteen screen types which you can manually choose and a further eleven in auto shoot mode that the camera can select from. You can also choose from extras like backlight compensation, exposure bracketing and motion sensitive shutter release.

Even though you could just pull the camera out of the box and start shooting, I would recommend you to read through the accompanying manual to find out about features, extras and little tricks that you can use. The menu can get cumbersome and you might just miss out on a number of helpful features and submenus.

Variable shutter speeds from 8 second slow shutter to a 1/2000th of a second speed will give you range to experiment and to take the best possible shots in variable light conditions. There was no barrel distortion at the camera lens’s wide end and almost no pincushioning when the lens was fully extended. i.e. at the tele end.

The camera is well packaged, with fairly average performance, but a good photo quality. The photos are viewable upto ISO 800, after which they get blotched and grainy. It is slightly better than its competitors in the compact camera race though. Overall, the TL225 performed well in the photo quality but the video quality is really very good. You can also use the custom RGB setting on your videos.

Nitty Gritty:

Though the Samsung DualView TL225 is a compact camera, it is loaded with features. Do not be fooled by the size and the meekness of this camera, for it can really perform. It is either on par or ahead of the competition in most areas, but in runs miles ahead with its features like the secondary LCD screen. It is a simple concept, and I truly wonder why no one thought of it before. Having said that, I feel that no other camera deserved to get the accolade for the Samsung DualView TL225 really does justice to this feature. So go ahead guys, click yourself, and this time no need to keep clicking till you get the frame right!

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